Showing posts with label Inner Peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inner Peace. Show all posts
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
New Age (Allmusic)
Born from an aesthetic that aims to induce a sense of inner calm, new
age music emerged from the meditational and holistic fields. Generally,
these are harmonious and nonthreatening albums that are allied with new
age philosophies encouraging spiritual transcendence and physical
healing. Some of these albums are artistically satisfying as well as
therapeutic. Lesser musicians, however, often make ridiculous claims in
the liner notes as to their ability to catapult listeners into advanced
spiritual states through specially designed sonic vibrations and
"immaculately conceived" musical ideas.
Some Good Artists (At Least For Me)
Jim Brickman
Kitaro
Enya
Steven Halpern
Ludovico Einaudi
Yanni
Friday, January 24, 2014
Alzheimer’s & dementia prevention #5: Stress management
Stress that is chronic or severe takes a heavy toll on the brain,
leading to shrinkage in a key memory area of the brain known as the
hippocampus, hampering nerve cell growth, and increasing your risk of
Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Yet simple daily tools can minimize
its harmful effects.
Get your stress levels in check with these proven techniques
- Breathe! Stress alters your breathing rate and impacts oxygen levels in the brain. Quiet your stress response with deep, abdominal breathing. Restorative breathing is powerful, simple, and free!
- Schedule daily relaxation activities. Keeping stress under control requires regular effort. Make relaxation a priority, whether it’s a walk in the park, playtime with your dog, yoga, or a soothing bath.
- Nourish inner peace. Most scientists acknowledge a strong mind-body connection, and various studies associate spirituality with better brain health. Regular meditation, prayer, reflection, and religious practice may immunize you against the damaging effects of stress.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Seven Steps to Inner Peace
Inner peace is the most valuable thing that we can cultivate. Nobody
can give us inner peace, at the same time it is only our own thoughts
that can rob us of our inner peace. To experience inner peace we don’t
have to retreat to a Himalayan cave; we can experience inner peace right
now, exactly where we are. The most important criteria is to value the
importance of inner peace. If we really value inner peace, we will work
hard to make it a reality.
These are some suggestions for bringing more peace into your mind.
1. Choose carefully where we spend time.
If you are a news addict and spend an hour reading newspapers
everyday, our mind will be agitated by the relentless negativity we see
in the world. It is true, that we can try to detach from this
negativity. But, in practise ,we will make our progress easier if we
don’t spend several hours ruminating over the problems of the world. If
you have a spare 15 minutes, don’t just automatically switch on the TV
or surf the internet. Take the opportunity to be still or at least do
something positive. The problem is the mind feels insecure unless it
has something to occupy it. However, when we really can attain a clear
mind we discover it creates a genuine sense of happiness and inner
peace.
2. Control of Thoughts.
It is our thoughts that determine our state of mind. If we constantly
cherish negative and destructive thoughts, inner peace will always
remain a far cry. At all costs, we need to avoid pursuing trains of
negative thoughts. This requires practise. – We cannot attain mastery of
our thoughts over night. But, at the same time we always have to
remember that we are able to decide which thoughts to follow and which
to reject. Never feel you are a helpless victim to your thoughts.
“If you have inner peace, nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.” - Sri Chinmoy [2]
3. Simplify Your Life
Modern life, places great demands on our time. We can feel that we
never have enough time to fulfill all our tasks. However, we should seek
to minimise these outer demands. Take time to simplify your life; there
are many things that we can do without, quite often we add unnecessary
responsibilities to our schedule. Do the most significant tasks, one at
a time, and enjoy doing them. To experience inner peace, it is
essential to avoid cluttering our life with unnecessary activities and
worries.
Every day we spend 8 hours a day to earn money, can we not find time
to spend 15 minutes to cultivate inner peace? No matter how much money
we earn, it cannot bring us inner peace, but, if we spend 15 minutes on
meditation and relaxation techniques inner peace can become a
possibility. Meditation does not just mean sitting still for 30 minutes;
in meditation we seek to experience a state of consciousness which is
flooded with inner peace. To experience this inner peace we cannot allow
any thought to enter into our mind. True inner peace occurs when we
can transcend the world of thoughts.
“You cannot buy peace; you must know how to manufacture it within, in the stillness of your daily practises in meditation.” - Paramahansa Yogananda [2]
5. Be immune to Flattery and Criticism
If we depend on the opinions and praise of other people, we can never
have inner peace. Criticism and flattery are two sides of the same
coin. They are both the judgements of others. However, we should not
allow ourselves to be affected by either. When we do, we feed the ego.
We should learn to have confidence in ourselves. This does not mean we
will love ourselves in an egotistical way, it means we value our real
self and have belief in the good qualities that are part of everyone.
6. Be Active selflessly
Inner peace does not mean that we have to live a life of a hermit.
Inner peace, can be felt amidst dynamic activity. But, this action
should be done with selfless motives. When we serve others we forget our
sense of self, and it is when we forget our limited self that we can
have inner peace.
7. Avoid Criticising Others
If we want inner peace, we should feel that our inner peace depends
on the well being of others. If we are indifferent to the feelings of
others, then it is impossible to have inner peace for ourselves. What we
give out comes back. If you offer a peaceful attitude to others this is
what we will see return.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
10 Powerful Ways to Deal with Anger
Here are some practical suggestions for dealing with anger.
1. When you are angry say nothing.
If we speak in anger we will definitely aggravate the situation and
quite likely hurt the feelings of others. If we speak in anger we will
find that people respond in kind, creating a spiral of negative anger.
If we can remain outwardly silent it gives time for the emotion of anger
to leave us.
“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred. “
2. Be indifferent to those who seek to make us angry.
Some people may unfortunately take a malicious pleasure in trying to
make you mad. However, if we can feel indifferent to them and their
words; if we feel it is beyond our dignity to even acknowledge them,
then their words and actions will have no effect. Also, if we do not
respond in any way to their provocation, they will lose interest and not
bother us in the future.
3. Use reason to stop anger.
When we feel anger coming to the fore try to take a step back and say
to yourself “This anger will not help me in any way. This anger will
make the situation worse.” Even if part of us remains angry our inner
voice is helping us to distance our self from the emotion of anger.
4. Look kindly upon Others.
Another visualisation, suggested by spiritual teacher Paramhansa
Yogananda, is to see the anger-rousing agent as a 5 year old child. If
you think of the other person as a helpless 5 year old child your
compassion and forgiveness will come to the fore. If your baby brother
accidentally stabbed you, you would not feel anger and desire to
retaliate. Instead, you would just feel he is just too young to know any
better. This exercise may be particularly useful for close members of
the family who at times evoke your anger.
5. Value Peace more than anger.
If we value peace of mind as our most important treasure we will not allow anger to remain in our system. As Sri Chinmoy says:
“You may have every right to be angry with someone, but you know that by getting angry with him you will only lose your precious peace of mind..”
6. Always try to understand those who are cross.
Don’t worry about feeling the need to defend yourself from their
criticisms. If you can remain detached and calm they may begin to feel
guilty about venting their anger on you. Inspired by your example of
calmness, they will seek subconsciously to do the same.
7. Focus on Something Completely Different.
Suppose someone has done something to make you angry. Think about
something which will make you happy. The best antidote to negativity is
to focus on the positive.
8. Breathe Deeply.
The simple act of breathing deeply will help considerably with removing anger.
9. Meditation.
Practise meditation regularly to bring your inner peace to the fore.
If we can have an inner access to our inner peace we will be able to
draw upon this during testing times. – How to Meditate
10. Smile
When we smile we defuse many negative situations. To smile is offer
goodwill to others. Smiling costs nothing but can effectively defuse
tense situations.
Common Sense
If you leave your unlocked bike in the centre of town, it is likely
to get stolen. This can be frustrating and is likely to give rise to
feelings of anger. Of course, we should minimise this kind of situation
– simply remember to lock your bike. If we feel there is an injustice
in our workplace, we should work to resolve it; this will make our work
environment more peaceful and less prone to creating anger. If we have a
partner who is abusive, the solution is not just dealing with our own
anger, but finding a more peaceful living situation.
When we try to transcend anger, it doesn’t mean we have to acquiesce
to injustice and unfairness. We should strive to make the world a better
place. However, whatever our goals, it is always best to act with poise
and a clear mind. Acting under the influence of anger makes it more
difficult to attain what we wish to achieve.
Finally as a teacher, I occasionally feign anger to make students pay
attention; sometimes, you need to show a stern face. However, as a
teacher you can’t afford to allow yourself to be over-run with the
emotion of anger because then you may over-react and create problems.
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Don’t take my word for it though, experiment for yourself. Notice how different you feel wearing blue or orange or even red undies or any item of clothing.
Years ago after listening to a color therapist a group of my girlfriends all switched to green wallets. Green represents growth, abundance and prosperity. It is the color most often associated with money. In Feng Shui green relates to the wood energy which is associated with wealth. You might also like to read the Tao of a full happy wallet if you are keen to boost your money vibes.
Research has shown that blue is the most likely color to suppress your appetite. A blue light in your fridge may be just the trick you need. Blue is not a color you think of when you imagine food. Nature does not offer many blue foods except for a few such as blueberries. Red will stimulate your appetite and encourage fast eating. Notice how many take-aways have red signs or decor.